Different types of containers are known today that are intended for storing and transporting large volumes of materials which are generally bulk materials or debris, for which it is in turn necessary to handle the actual container once it is loaded to either remove the materials contained therein or to transport them to the location in which they are going to be used, which is a very slow and complex operation due to the large weight and volume of these containers, making them difficult to handle.
For example, there is a type of container comprising a rigid body, normal of metal, the sizes of which vary depending on their application and the volume of material to be contained, being intended for containing debris, to which end they are temporarily placed on a public road close to the point of removal of the debris.
To handle these containers a goods transport vehicle is required which comprises lifting means for fixing them to a sling which normally comprises four chains the ends of which are fixed to anchoring points on the sides of the container, all during a slow operation which requires, in addition to the mentioned lifting means, the direct participation of an operator for fixing the ends of the chains at fixing points of the container.
In addition, there is another type of container commonly known as flexible containers or sacks intended for containing bulk or dust materials, commonly used in the field of construction as well as in the transport and removal of debris in minor construction jobs given their size, such as for example in the refurbishing of shops and homes.
This type of container normally comprises a lower panel and four side panels defining an inner space intended for containing, for example, a bulk material. These containers are known by the abbreviation FIBC (Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers), and are normally made of woven raffia polyethylene.
This type of container has several configurations which allow for different applications, especially in relation to the support means which allow the lifting thereof in container loading and unloading operations.
In relation to said support means, one of the most widely used containers comprises a handle in each of the upper corners formed by the side panels, which allows the gripping thereof by a crane hook, or any other mechanism or substructure coupled to said four handles when the container is lifted.
There are other variants in which the container comprises ropes or chains arranged between each of the handles placed in each corner. In some cases, these ropes or chains are arranged parallel two by two, such that the container comprises two longitudinal handles and two transverse handles, which are normally perpendicular to the longitudinal handles in the event that the plan of the container is rectangular and therefore has four side panels.
Another type of container has a single rope which is arranged inside all the corner handles, such that it allows supporting while at the same time causing, precisely by the effect of said support, the automatic closing of the container when the latter is in the loaded situation.
There is a feature that is common to the containers discussed up to this point, which is a direct consequence of the considerable loads that these containers are able to withstand when they are in the loaded situation, reaching an order of magnitude of a thousand kilos. Said common feature is that handling these containers requires the use of lifting means such as cranes or forklift trucks.
The main drawback of all these containers is also that the linkage to the lifting means must be done manually by an operator, normally at several points of the container as in the case of four points each being located in an upper corner of the container. Said manual linkage must be done both in the hooking operations for hooking and in the operations for unhooking the container, with the subsequent delay caused in the handling process and its negative repercussion on transport costs, resulting in a high risk for the safety of the operator.
There are different manners of linking the lifting means with the container. For example, the containers comprising a handle in each upper corner for the linkage thereof with a hook require manually hooking the hook in each of the four handles of the container. To unhook the container, it is also necessary to act manually to unlink the hooks from the handles of the container, with the subsequent loss of time this involves.
There are also slings comprising chains with four branches, or belts, which allow the operator to hook the ring of the sling to the crane hook and then each hook in a handle of the container.
In addition to the drawback of requiring a manual hooking, another drawback of this type of container is that the lifting means are not always available when the container is to be handled.
An example of a device used as support means for this type of container is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,579, relating to a device for lifting bulk bags, configured as a structure comprising four branches and an element which allows being hooked by a crane hook. Each of the ends of the branches has a hinged element that can be vertically positioned between a downward position and an upward position, intended for being housed in handles the container has in its corners, such that it allows the lifting thereof.
As in the previous case, this device has the drawback of being extremely complex and expensive, and it further requires carrying the device at all times. In addition, the device offers very little safety given the high possibility of the failure of the hinged element, which must be placed manually by an operator.
In addition, European patent application no. EP 0259230 describes a device for handling large capacity bags intended for containing bulk materials comprising a lower panel and four side panels, all of which are flexible, having a handle in each of the upper corners, allowing the housing of a quadrangular rigid structure which can allow the fixing thereof to lifting means, such as crane hooks for example.
However this is not very reliable in situations in which the rigid structure or any of the handles break, being extremely unstable and requiring several points of support of the rigid structure, for the purpose of preventing the container from overturning, especially in the loaded situation. This device is not versatile and is complicated to install, requiring the manual action of an operator and the need for carrying said rigid structure at all times, with the subsequent risk of forgetting said structure and the impossibility of handling the container.
Likewise, to handle and transport this type of container in short distances, even for the side loading in goods transport vehicles, forklift trucks are also used to which end the manual coupling of the fork of the forklift truck into the handles of the container, in combination with handling the forklift truck itself, is required; therefore at least two operators are required, with the subsequent risk for the safety of the operator responsible for handling the handles and the increase in the container transport costs.
An example of this type of handling means is described in European patent no. EP 1045802, which relates to a flexible bag intended for storing and allowing the transport of bulk materials, to which end said bag comprises a lower panel and side panels, likewise having two parallel resilient tubular elements fixed to the upper part of the side panels, serving as a guide for the fork of a forklift truck, which thus allows handling the bag.
The main drawback of this type of bag is that it can only be handled by means of this type of lifting means, having to adapt a crane or any other element to the parallel configuration of a fork to allow performing bag loading and unloading operations.
Based on the foregoing, the linkage of a container with means configured to allow its handling, including its lifting, transport as well as container loading and unloading operations in a goods transport vehicle, currently require direct manual intervention in the actual container by an operator, with the subsequent loss of time, and therefore increase in transport cost, as well as a high risk of an accident occurring for the operator.